The Welcoming Party of Mesomeso
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: The youkai have grown by one and now that it's been done, they celebrate.
1. the first meeting

**A/N:** Written for

Diversity Writing Challenge, b9 - drabble collection with 10 times 100 word drabbles  
Pokemon Sun/Moon MC Trial, prologue task 1: write about excitement

* * *

 **The Welcoming Party of Mesomeso  
** _1\. first greeting_

It's time. Let's welcome! Let's dance upon the sewer-stained grave of the crying child and celebrate her ascension. It's Mesomeso: the crying youkai at the bottom of the barrel but that's fine because all babies are at the bottom of the barrel, aren't they? And here's our child: our youngest sibling. Let's welcome the latest addition to our family after all these years of sterility and a large nursery we've left to turn into that very sewer that became Marie Moriya's grave and the site of her ascension. We heard her immortalisation. We voted for her. Now… we welcome her.


	2. the seventh youkai

**The Welcoming Party of Mesomeso  
** _2\. the seventh youkai_

You oppose her. You oppose her simply because she is Higanbana's prey and that means you don't want her to transcend her existence and become one of you; you want to eat her instead. you want her bones cracking between your teeth and her blood teasing between your teeth but you're too late to do anything about it because the matter's being put to vote and that means she's off limits, it means there's six others keeping an eye on her and you and all you can do is cast your vote: one of many and hope your vote wins.


	3. the sixth youkai

**The Welcoming Party of Mesomeso  
** _3\. the sixth youkai_

You pity her and you give your vote to her because she reminds you all too much of you yourself and she deserves so much more than that. You can see where she'll wind up otherwise and you think she deserves more; she does deserve more. And here's a chance without devouring her and even that's a mercy sometimes, often, but this time that girl might get something more. So you cast your vote and you hope and you're very un-demonlike but that's okay because you want to save people like her and you hope this vote of yours can.


	4. the fifth youkai

**The Welcoming Party of Mesomeso  
** _4\. the fifth youkai_

You're a nice guy, all in all, and you think it's a cruel fate that awaits her otherwise and so you give your vote to her. It's not often you agree with Higanbana but you agree this time that the girl has something special – and something missing with which she could have grasped her human soul. But the vote's for something else: for a youkai, not a human, and she can do that, he thinks. She can do that and it'll be good for him so long as the others don't string her along – but knowing them, they will regardless.


	5. the fourth youkai

**The Welcoming Party of Mesomeso  
** _5\. the fourth youkai_

You cast your vote as yes as well because she's just your type of meal but she's been snatched away and that's a pity because you could have had so much fun otherwise. You could have watched her change but now you can't because she's either going to transcend her humanity or she's going to die and you don't want her gone. And you've got a slightly more selfish reason as well; your dear little sister cast her vote as no so of course you have to contradict her. It's your eternal sibling quarrel and the elder has to win.


	6. the second youkai

**The Welcoming Party of Mesomeso  
** _6\. the second youkai_

You are the one who hates meetings like these and votes like these but, even worse, waits like this and you're not in the mood to wait at all. So you vote no because no way would that girl ever pass your little game and so she's automatically dropped a few rungs and he doesn't care beyond that at all. So his vote is no but he won't complain if the tide turns against him; he'll just whip her into shape afterwards because a human might escape his game after fourty-nine days but not a youkai. She'll be eternally damned.


	7. the first youkai

**The Welcoming party of Mesomeso  
** _7\. the first youkai_

You're the headmaster and your word is law except when the matter is put to vote like this one, and you vote no. You vote no because that's the sort of student the world will forget about and she's better off like that, you think. You can already imagine the tears, the agony, the dark miasma that will choke that place until he wipes all their memories clean and you're tired of the constant effort because the human souls you get in return aren't much, when compared to other goals… But it might be interesting, to see what she became.


	8. the third youkai

**The Welcoming party of Mesomeso  
** _8\. the third youkai_

And you… you're the one who brought her into the fold and now you choose to abstain your vote because it's simply more exciting that way. It's a little silly because you're the one who's put the effort to working this out and you've left the chance to confirm it to a stroke of fate and luck. But it's more fun that way, isn't it? Watching them struggle and knowing that struggle will cost more and give more than either of them know. And you get to make her suffer more too and isn't that the best prize of all?


	9. the alternate mesomeso

**The Welcoming party of Mesomeso  
** _9\. the alternate Mesomeso_

You are the one who've been granted an opportunity you don't deserve but you celebrate it anyway because it appeals to you, transcending your human form because then you're not bound by its chains: the stress you claim, and the sins you pile up on your name. You'll be more than a human and then you can be done with all these irksome things in your life and possess the ones you want forever instead of fleetingly. And you think it'll be an easy win for you because you've beaten her already, haven't you? But that's arrogance and you're wrong.


	10. the true Mesomeso

**The Welcoming party of Mesomeso  
** _10\. the true Mesomeso_

And you, finally you: the true Mesomeso who ascends the newly formed eighth rank. And you'd never dreamed of it before until you wandered into the territory, until you built your fanbase without even knowing you were and with your agony, your quiet tears – and you've realised, haven't you, that all of them have their own forms of tears too? You realise it and that's why you decide your modus operandi will be to befriend them instead and spread a little happiness: the sort of happiness you couldn't find and that's why you accept and it's contradictory and that's okay.


End file.
